REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 77 
Maryland and Pennsylvania these insects also migrate from field to 
field, when in great numbers and short of food, but never take the long 
flights their western relative accomplishes with its larger and more pow- 
erful wings. Turkeys, domestic fowls, and birds serve to keep their 
numbers down in the Hastern States; they can also be readily caught 
in drag-nets made of cotton cloth or canvas swept over the grass early 
in the morning when they are somewhat benumbed and inactive. 
For destroying cockroaches it has been recommended to strew pul- 
verized borax freely in and about their haunts. This, however, has 
been tried and found useless, at least as far as the so-called croton bug, 
Ectobia germanica is concerned, which feeds freely on red wafers, vermil- 
lion, &c. In a library they were killed by a mixture of Paris green, 
starch, and glycerine; before dying, however, they stained the books 
and papers so much that the remedy was found to be as bad as the dis- 
ease, and it was therefore discontinued. It would be dangerous to use 
this remedy about the kitchen or pantry on account of the Paris green. 
The imported currant-worm or saw-fly, Nematus ventricosus, (Kug.,) was 
very destructive last season. The insect is stated to Fig. 33. 
have been imported first in the neighborhood of 
‘Rochester, and to have traveled about tweuty-five 
niles a year. The perfect fly comes out of the 
ground about April or May, and lays her eggs along 
the principal veins on the under siderof the leaves. 
The larve have twenty legs, black heads, and are 
of a greenish color, spotted with black, but after 
the last molt they become entirely of a green color, 
with large, dark, eye-like spots on each side of the 
head. When fully grown the larve are abcut three- 
fourths of an inch in length. They then burrow : 
into the earth, or hide under dead leaves, and spin a thin oval cocoon 
of brown silk, in which the pupa is formed. The perfect insect appears 
about June or July, and the second brood does not come out until the 
following spring. The native currant-worm, Pristophora grossularia, 
(Waish,) is said not to be as injurious as its foreign relative, and differs 
from it by being, in the larval state, always of a uniform green color, 
without the black dottings always found on the imported species, except 
after the last molt. The cocoon is also spun among the twigs and 
leaves of the bushes on which it feeds, and it does not go under ground 
to form its cocoon. The insects are only about three-fourths the size of 
the imported pest, and the sexes are alike in coloration, while the female 
of the imported species has the body mostly of a bright honey-yellow, 
the male being principally black; the venation of the wings also varies. 
The larve of both feed upon the currant and gooseberry, and some were 
brought to this Department which were said to have been found feed- 
ing on the leaves of the strawberry, planted around the currant bushes. 
The best remedy is dusting the bushes with pulverized white hellebore— 
the root of the Veratrum album of Europe—which may be found at any 
druggist’s. The success of our native species, Veratrum viride of Gray, 
the American white hellebore or Indian poke, has not yet been reported 
on, but should be tried. Syringing the plants with a strong decoction 
of hellebore is said to kill the insect also, and although it is poisonous 
in large quantities, the American Entomologist states that in minute 
doses there is no reason to be afraid of it. Dr. Fitch states, as a proof 
of its innocuous properties, that it has long been in use as the basis of 
certain snuffs. It would be well, however, to wash the fruit betore 
using it. 
